The first was a little coastal village called Southend that had been recommended to us in a camp kitchen a week or so ago. It was very pretty and had a scenic drive to Cape Buffon, The water again was a bright aqua colour and was smashing itself against limestone cliffs. This region is called the Limestone Coast - it is obvious why.
The second detour was just past the timber town of Millicent. It is the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere. This came as no surprise to us - it has not stopped blowing since we hit the Eyre Peninsula 3 weeks ago. We have seen dozens of these wind turbines in our travels but have never been able to get up close. These things are HUGE. And they do make a noise - a low whooshing sound which I found kind of creepy.
Mount Ganbier proved similar to many of the towns we have found across SA. It has plenty of well preserved stone buildings and a proud heritage ( there are plaques to just about everything, everywhere) To Rods delight, it also has an RSL with a bistro. SA is almost devoid of the RSL style clubs we NSWelshmen are familiar with. I haven't missed them much. And I have not missed having a TV at all.
We hit Mount Gambier at about noon and went to the information centre as usual and were told to head straight into town to see a free movie playing at the Main Corner. Its adjacent to the art gallery and old town hall and has been converted into a public space. Excellent displays, clean toilets and a theatre showing a 1 hour feature on the geology of the area. It proved to be the best advice, as we learned how the landscape has been formed and then went out to see it for ourselves that afternoon.
You can Google all the details (and even Rod and the children found it interesting) . Witnessing the topography with an informed eye made all the difference.
We were fortunate that the Blue lake was blue. It is grey during the winter and then, through the combined miracle of chemistry and biology, turns a vivid blue in a 24 hour period, usually in mid November. Those of you with some natural curiosity will also Google those details, but for those who won't - let me say it has everything to do with groundwater moving through limestone and algae.
After a circumnavigation of the Blue Lake, we explored Valley Lake, Devils Punchbowl, Leg Of Mutton Lake and Brown lake. And no, Brown lake is not brown, in fact it has no water in it and hasn't since the early part of last century due to a change in the ground water levels. After that it was off to some sinkholes. The first is literally in the centre of town and does a very pleasant light and sound show each evening. Its called The Caves. The second is named Umpherston, after some dude who owned the land at one point (never heard of deedpoll?). It did have water in the bottom of it but not anymore. It was dark by the time we got to Umpherston but the place was full of quite tame possums and the kids had a great time chasing the poor things.
Our plan was to press on into Victoria today, but Mount Gambier impressed us. Rod was very keen to do some of the walks, so we rebooked another night at the cheap and cheerful van park we had found. Thus today found us walking the crater edge around Valley Lake and then having lunch at the beautiful park inside the crater. If some of you have Googled earlier, you will by now be tch-tching at this post saying " Fiona, they are not Volcanic lakes, they are Maars". Yeah, you are right. When the groundwater flooded into the space left by the erupted magma, it caused a dirty great lot of steam pressure and then the whole thing exploded. The volcano is no longer there, not because of erosion, but it just blew itself up. Would have liked to have seen that from a distance.
We also headed back to Umpherston as we wanted to see it in daylight. Glad we did, there is a beautiful garden at the bottom, with trellising ivy spilling from nearly all sides. It is very peaceful - until the Burtons showed up and played a very boisterous game of hide and seek.
We had the afternoon free so I decide to vacuum out the car ( Rod still forbids me to wash it) and then catch up on some reading. I finished "Snow falling on Cedars" a few weeks back (found that abandoned in a Swan Hill laundry ) and have been forced to read the "Divergent" series that Georgia brought along with her. Eventhough,it was nice to sit still for a bit. And I found a pretty decent coffe at the local bakery.
We haven't been very dilgent with the kids school work for the past two weeks. Despite this, they have been learning. They can identify granite, limestone, sandstone and basalt. They can spot a Black Angus breed cow at a padocks length. They can also have an educated guess at a Pinus radiata and Pinus elliottii. The latter is due to my tutoring. I was, afterall, secretary of the forestry club in primary school. They have found two echidna in the wild in the last two days and both of them are showing a solid mechanical aptitude with all thing caravan-y. And of course, we are vastly improved at cricket.
We say goodbye to SA tomorrow, for real this time.
We
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